Effective cooling of electronic parts found inside many products used today helps insure the reliability and proper function of these products. Heat sinks are commonly used to dissipate heat generated by such electronic parts. The heat sinks provide additional surface area, illustratively, through fins or pins on an upper surface of the heat sink to conduct heat away from an integrated circuit (IC). That is, the heat sink radiates the heat via the illustrative fins or pins to the surrounding environment.
A heat sink may be affixed to an upper surface of an IC by various techniques, such as mechanical devices (e.g., mounting clips), or by bonding the bottom surface of the heat sink to the upper surface of the IC. For example, one type of heat sink is provided with an adhesive tape affixed to the bottom of the heat sink. The adhesive tape is inexpensive and easy to use. However, the process of bonding of the heat sink to the IC may cause variability in product reliability and functionality.
For example, in non-automated integration and manufacturing facilities, heat sinks may be installed over an IC manually by a technician. In particular, the technician places the heat sink over the IC and exerts a downward force on the heat sink to secure the heat sink to the upper surface of the IC via the bonding material (e.g., adhesive tape). If the technician does not apply ample force to the upper surface of the heat sink, the adhesive may not securely affix to the upper surface of the IC, and may be susceptible to falling off the IC, illustratively, during shipping and/or handling of the product. Conversely, the technician may exert an excessive downward force on the heat sink, which may damage the IC or the surrounding components, such as solder connections and/or the printed circuit board supporting the IC.
Additionally the duration of the force applied by the technician significantly affects the quality of the tape bond. For proper bonding, the force must be applied for a known minimum duration. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a hand-held tool that minimizes the variability in magnitude of applied force and its duration when installing a heat sink having a bonding material, such as adhesive tape, to the surface of the IC.